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Go Back: Home > Earth Island Journal > Issues > Autumn 2013 > Conversation
Naomi Klein
Canadian author Naomi Klein is so well known for her blade-sharp commentary that it's easy to forget that she is, above all, a first-rate reporter. I got a glimpse into her priorities as I was working on this interview. Klein told me she was worried that some of the things she had said would make it hard for her to land an interview with a president of the one of the Big Green groups (read below and you'll see why). She was more interested in nabbing the story than being the story; her reporting trumped any opinion-making.
photo by Ed Kashi
Such focus is a hallmark of Klein's career. She doesn't do much of the chattering class's news cycle blathering. She works steadily, carefully, quietly. It can be surprising to remember that Klein's immense global influence rests on a relatively small body of work; she has published three books, one of which is an anthology of magazine pieces.
Klein's first book, No Logo, investigated how brand names manipulate public desires while exploiting the people who make their products. The book came out just weeks after the WTO protests in Seattle and became an international bestseller. Her next major book, The Shock Doctrine, argued that free-marketeers often use crises – natural or manufactured – to ram through deregulatory policies. With her newest, yet-to-be named book, Klein turns her attention to climate change. Scheduled for release in 2014, the book will also be made into a film by her husband and creative partner, Avi Lewis.
Klein's books and articles have sought to articulate a counternarrative to the march of corporate globalization and government austerity. She believes climate change provides a new chance for creating such a counternarrative. "The book I am writing is arguing that our responses to climate change can rebuild the public sphere, can strengthen our communities, can have work with dignity."
First, though, she has to finish the reporting. As she told me, speaking about the grassroots response to climate chaos: "Right now it's under the radar, but I'm following it quite closely."
—Jason Mark
During your career you've written about the power of brand names, populist movements around the world, and free market fundamentalism. Why now a book and film on climate change?
You know, The Shock Doctrine, my last book, ends with climate change. It ends with a vision of a dystopic future where you have weak infrastructure colliding with heavy weather, as we saw with Hurricane Katrina. And rather than working to prevent future disasters by having lower emissions, you have all these attempts to take advantage of that crisis. At the time, it seemed to me that climate change was potentially going to be the biggest disaster-capitalism free-for-all that we've seen yet. So it was quite a logical progression for me to go from writing about disaster-capitalism in The Shock Doctrine to writing about climate change. As I was writing The Shock Doctrine, I was covering the Iraq War and profiteering from the war, and I started to see these patterns repeat in the aftermath of natural disasters, like the Asian tsunami and then Hurricane Katrina. There are chapters in that book on both of those events. Then I came to the idea that climate change could be a kind of a "people's shock," an answer to the shock doctrine – not just another opportunity by the disaster capitalists to feed off of misery, but an opportunity for progressive forces to deepen democracy and really improve livelihoods around the world. Then I came across the idea of "climate debt" when I was doing a piece on reparations for Harper's magazine. I had a meeting with Bolivia's climate negotiator in Geneva – her name is Angélica Navarro – and she put the case to me that climate change could be an opportunity for a global Green Marshall Plan with the North paying climate debts in the form of huge green development project.
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy you wrote about the potential of a "people's shock." Do you see that it's happening, a global grassroots response to some of the extreme weather we're experiencing?
I see a people's shock happening broadly, where on lots of different fronts you have constituencies coming forward who have been fighting, for instance, for sustainable agriculture for many, many years, and now realize that it's also a climate solution. You have a lot of reframing of issues – and not in an opportunistic way, just another layer of understanding. Here in Canada, the people who oppose the tar sands most forcefully are Indigenous people living downstream from the tar sands. They are not opposing it because of climate change – they are opposing it because it poisons their bodies. But the fact that it's also ruining the planet adds another layer of urgency. And it's that layering of climate change on top of other issues that holds a huge amount of potential.
In terms of Hurricane Sandy, I really do see some hopeful, grassroots responses, particularly in the Rockaways, where people were very organized right from the beginning, where Occupy Sandy was very strong, where new networks emerged. The first phase is just recovery, and now as you have a corporate-driven reconstruction process descending, those organized communities are in a position to respond, to go to the meetings, to take on the real estate developers, to talk about another vision of public housing that is way better than what's there right now. So yeah, it's definitely happening. Right now it's under the radar, but I'm following it quite closely.
In a piece you wrote for The Nation in November 2011 you suggested that when it comes to climate change, there's a dual denialism at work – conservatives deny the science while some liberals deny the political implications of the science. Why do you think that some environmentalists are resistant to grappling with climate change's implications for the market and for economics?
Well, I think there is a very a deep denialism in the environmental movement among the Big Green groups. And to be very honest with you, I think it's been more damaging than the right-wing denialism in terms of how much ground we've lost. Because it has steered us in directions that have yielded very poor results. I think if we look at the track record of Kyoto, of the UN Clean Development Mechanism, the European Union's emissions trading scheme – we now have close to a decade that we can measure these schemes against, and it's disastrous. Not only are emissions up, but you have no end of scams to point to, which gives fodder to the right. The right took on cap-and-trade by saying it's going to bankrupt us, it's handouts to corporations, and, by the way, it's not going to work. And they were right on all counts. Not in the bankrupting part, but they were right that this was a massive corporate giveaway, and they were right that it wasn't going to bring us anywhere near what scientists were saying we needed to do lower emissions. So I think it's a really important question why the green groups have been so unwilling to follow science to its logical conclusions. I think the scientists Kevin Anderson and his colleague Alice Bows at the Tyndall Centre have been the most courageous on this because they don't just take on the green groups, they take on their fellow scientists for the way in which neoliberal economic orthodoxy has infiltrated the scientific establishment. It's really scary reading. Because they have been saying, for at least for a decade, that getting to the emissions reduction levels that we need to get to in the developed world is not compatible with economic growth.
What we know is that the environmental movement had a series of dazzling victories in the late 60s and in the 70s where the whole legal framework for responding to pollution and to protecting wildlife came into law. It was just victory after victory after victory. And these were what came to be called "command-and-control" pieces of legislation. It was "don't do that." That substance is banned or tightly regulated. It was a top-down regulatory approach. And then it came to screeching halt when Regan was elected. And he essentially waged war on the environmental movement very openly. We started to see some of the language that is common among those deniers – to equate environmentalism with Communism and so on. As the Cold War dwindled, environmentalism became the next target, the next Communism. Now, the movement at that stage could have responded in one of the two ways. It could have fought back and defended the values it stood for at that point, and tried to resist the steamroller that was neoliberalism in its early days. Or it could have adapted itself to this new reality, and changed itself to fit the rise of corporatist government. And it did the latter. Very consciously if you read what [Environmental Defense Fund president] Fred Krupp was saying at the time.
It was go along or get along.
Exactly. We now understand it's about corporate partnerships. It's not, "sue the bastards;" it's, "work through corporate partnerships with the bastards." There is no enemy anymore.
More than that, it's casting corporations as the solution, as the willing participants and part of this solution. That's the model that has lasted to this day.
I go back to something even like the fight over NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. The Big Green groups, with very few exceptions, lined up in favor of NAFTA, despite the fact that their memberships were revolting, and sold the deal very aggressively to the public. That's the model that has been globalized through the World Trade Organization, and that is responsible in many ways for the levels of soaring emissions. We've globalized an utterly untenable economic model of hyperconsumerism. It's now successfully spreading across the world, and it's killing us.
It's not that the green groups were spectators to this – they were partners in this. They were willing participants in this. It's not every green group. It's not Greenpeace, it's not Friends of the Earth, it's not, for the most part, the Sierra Club. It's not 350.org, because it didn't even exist yet. But I think it goes back to the elite roots of the movement, and the fact that when a lot of these conservation groups began there was kind of a noblesse oblige approach to conservation. It was about elites getting together and hiking and deciding to save nature. And then the elites changed. So if the environmental movement was going to decide to fight, they would have had to give up their elite status. And weren't willing to give up their elite status. I think that's a huge part of the reason why emissions are where they are.
At least in American culture, there is always this desire for the win-win scenario. But if we really want to get to, say, an 80 percent reduction in CO2 emissions, some people are going to lose. And I guess what you are saying is that it's hard for the environmental leadership to look some of their partners in the eye and say, "You're going to lose."
Exactly. To pick on power. Their so-called win-win strategy has lost. That was the idea behind cap-and-trade. And it was a disastrously losing strategy. The green groups are not nearly as clever as they believe themselves to be. They got played on a spectacular scale. Many of their partners had one foot in US CAP [Climate Action Partnership] and the other in the US Chamber of Commerce. They were hedging their bets. And when it looked like they could get away with no legislation, they dumped US CAP completely.
The phrase win-win is interesting, because there are a lot of losers in the win-win strategy. A lot of people are sacrificed in the name of win-win. And in the US, we just keep it to the cap-and-trade fight and I know everyone is tired of fighting that fight. I do think there is a lot of evidence that we have not learned the key lessons of that failure.
And what do you think the key lessons are?
Well one of them is willingness to sacrifice – in the name of getting a win-win with big polluters who are part of that coalition – the communities that were living on the fenceline. Communities, in Richmond, California for instance, who would have been like, "We fight climate change and our kids won't get as much asthma." That win-win was broken because you get a deal that says, "OK you guys can keep polluting but you're going to have to buy some offsets on the other side of the planet." And the local win is gone, is sacrificed.
I'm in favor of win-win, you know. The book I am writing is arguing that our responses to climate change can rebuild the public sphere, can strengthen our communities, can have work with dignity. We can address the financial crisis and the ecological crisis at the same. I believe that. But I think it's by building coalitions with people, not with corporations, that you are going to get those wins. And what I see is really a willingness to sacrifice the basic principles of solidarity, whether it is to that fenceline community in Richmond, California or whether it's with that Indigenous community in Brazil that, you know, is forced off their territory because their forest has just become a carbon sink or an offset and they no longer have access to the forest that allowed them to live sustainably because it's policed. Because a conservation group has decided to trade it. So these sacrifices are made – there are a lot of losers in this model and there aren't any wins I can see.
You were talking about the Clean Development Mechanism as a sort of disaster capitalism. Isn't geoengineering the ultimate disaster capitalism?
I certainly think it's the ultimate expression of a desire to avoid doing the hard work of reducing emissions, and I think that's the appeal of it. I think we will see this trajectory the more and more climate change becomes impossible to deny. A lot of people will skip right to geoengineering. The appeal of geoengineering is that it doesn't threaten our worldview. It leaves us in a dominant position. It says that there is an escape hatch. So all the stories that got us to this point, that flatter ourselves for our power, will just be scaled up.
[There is a]willingness to sacrifice large numbers of people in the way we respond to climate change – we are already showing a brutality in the face of climate change that I find really chilling. I don't think we have the language to even describe [geoengineering], because we are with full knowledge deciding to allow cultures to die, to allow peoples to disappear. We have the ability to stop and we're choosing not to. So I think the profound immorality and violence of that decision is not reflected in the language that we have. You see that we have these climate conventions where the African delegates are using words like "genocide," and the European and North American delegates get very upset and defensive about this. The truth is that the UN definition of genocide is that it is the deliberate act to disappear and displace people. What the delegates representing the North are saying is that we are not doing this because we want you to disappear; we are doing this because we don't care essentially. We don't care if you disappear if we continue business-as-usual. That's a side effect of collateral damage. Well, to the people that are actually facing the disappearance it doesn't make a difference whether there is malice to it because it still could be prevented. And we're choosing not to prevent it. I feel one of the crises that we're facing is a crisis of language. We are not speaking about this with the language of urgency or mortality that the issue deserves.
You've said that progressives' narratives are insufficient. What would be an alternative narrative to turn this situation around?
Well, I think the narrative that got us into this – that's part of the reason why you have climate change denialism being such as powerful force in North America and in Australia – is really tied to the frontier mentality. It's really tied to the idea of there always being more. We live on lands that were supposedly innocent, "discovered" lands where nature was so abundant. You could not imagine depletion ever. These are foundational myths.
And so I've taken a huge amount of hope from the emergence of the Idle No More movement, because of what I see as a tremendous generosity of spirit from Indigenous leadership right now to educate us in another narrative. I just did a panel with Idle No More and I was the only non-Native speaker at this event, and the other Native speakers were all saying we want to play this leadership role. It's actually taken a long time to get to that point. There's been so much abuse heaped upon these communities, and so much rightful anger at the people who stole their lands. This is the first time that I've seen this openness, open willingness that we have something to bring, we want to lead, we want to model another way which relates to the land. So that's where I am getting a lot of hope right now.
The impacts of Idle No More are really not understood. My husband is making a documentary that goes with this book, and he's directing it right now in Montana, and we've been doing a lot of filming on the northern Cheyenne reservation because there's a huge, huge coal deposit that they've been debating for a lot of years – whether or not to dig out this coal. And it was really looking like they were going to dig it up. It goes against their prophecies, and it's just very painful. Now there's just this new generation of young people on that reserve who are determined to leave that coal in the ground, and are training themselves to do solar and wind, and they all talk about Idle No More. I think there's something very powerful going on. In Canada it's a very big deal. It's very big deal in all of North America, because of the huge amount of untapped energy, fossil fuel energy, that is on Indigenous land. That goes for Arctic oil. It certainly goes for the tar sands. It goes for where they want to lay those pipelines. It goes for where the natural gas is. It goes for where the major coal deposits are in the US. I think in Canada we take Indigenous rights more seriously than in the US. I hope that will change.
It's interesting because even as some of the Big Green groups have gotten enamored of the ideas of ecosystem services and natural capital, there's this counter-narrative coming from the Global South and Indigenous communities. It's almost like a dialectic.
That's the counternarrative, and those are the alternative worldviews that are emerging at this moment. The other thing that is happening … I don't know what to call it. It's maybe a reformation movement, a grassroots rebellion. There's something going on in the [environmental] movement in the US and Canada, and I think certainly in the UK. What I call the "astronaut's eye worldview" – which has governed the Big Green environmental movement for so long – and by that I mean just looking down at Earth from above. I think it's sort of time to let go of the icon of the globe, because it places us above it and I think it has allowed us to see nature in this really abstracted way and sort of move pieces, like pieces on a chessboard, and really loose touch with the Earth. You know, it's like the planet instead of the Earth.
And I think where that really came to a head was over fracking. The head offices of the Sierra Club and the NRDC and the EDF all decided this was a "bridge fuel." We've done the math and we're going to come out in favor of this thing. And then they faced big pushbacks from their membership, most of all at the Sierra Club. And they all had to modify their position somewhat. It was the grassroots going, "Wait a minute, what kind of environmentalism is it that isn't concerned about water, that isn't concerned about industrialization of rural landscapes – what has environmentalism become?" And so we see this grassroots, place-based resistance in the movements against the Keystone XL pipeline and the Northern Gateway pipeline, the huge anti-fracking movement. And they are the ones winning victories, right?
I think the Big Green groups are becoming deeply irrelevant. Some get a lot of money from corporations and rich donors and foundations, but their whole model is in crisis.
I hate to end a downer like that.
I'm not sure that is a downer.
It might not be.
I should say I'm representing my own views. I see some big changes as well. I think the Sierra Club has gone through its own reformation. They are on the frontline of these struggles now. I think a lot of these groups are having to listen to their members. And some of them will just refuse to change because they're just too entrenched in the partnership model, they've got too many conflicts of interest at this stage. Those are the groups that are really going to suffer. And I think it's OK. I think at this point, there's a big push in Europe where 100 civil society groups are calling on the EU not to try to fix their failed carbon-trading system, but to actually drop it and start really talking about cutting emissions at home instead of doing this shell game. I think that's the moment we're in right now. We don't have any more time to waste with these very clever, not working shell games.
Jason Mark is editor of Earth Island Journal. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
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thanks for this and all yer good work:
By dmf on Tue, July 29, 2014 at 8:25 am
Since the crisis started in 2008, environmental corporations have been losing members in increasing numbers. People under 30 prefer incidental donations and short-term small-scale projects over lifetime memberships.
Also, investigative films like Silence of the Pandas (check it on Filmsforaction.org) show the other side of the cute images that WWF et al, produce. In Germany the film caused a big uproar.
By njasoboo on Tue, December 10, 2013 at 6:21 am
The problem with Big Green isn't ecosystem services or natural capital, its bad faith. The problem with accounting systems isn't numbers, its accounting fraud. Everyone knows that "freedom is participation in power" (Cicero) so the problem is getting participation. The problem with participation is that if it is granted by the establishment it costs too much—it costs at least part of your good faith (bona fides). So power has to be taken from the establishment, at least in part, adversarially. The problem with adversarity is zero-sum violence in many forms. That's why we revere people like Gandhi and MLK. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Peace out, PR
By Poor Richard on Sun, November 03, 2013 at 11:20 pm
Frankly, I'd be glad to support a corporate oligarchy if it would only stop climate change in its tracks, because that's much more important than my political preference for direct democracy. Unfortunately, the way things are currently going, it seems highly unlikely that the corporate oligarchy is going to exhibit such a high degree of interest in its own self preservation. So, the sooner we get this wrenching change in our collective mentality over with, the better. If we can do it at all.
By ThisOldMan on Sat, November 02, 2013 at 8:12 pm
Nature climate doesn't give a business about human economy, human jobs, nature does not negotiate, we need nature, nature doesn't need us. Instead of compromising and coexisting, we like to think we have the upper hand in every situation, in every battle…
By Chen Chih Teng on Thu, October 10, 2013 at 2:42 pm
FIRST and foremost, please write to all the green groups we support, to ask them STOP sending us materials through mails, we don't need them, they are just waste of energies and materials. Emails, phone calls, and other social networks provide enough sources to communicate and mobilize movements.
So thank you, but no thank you for those physical mails.
By chen chih teng on Wed, October 09, 2013 at 10:15 pm
Great article. And so true. Battles are seemingly won while the war is being lost.
By Charles Tripi on Thu, September 19, 2013 at 2:51 pm
Thank you Naomi:
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
Time for another road.
Perhaps we could all gather - on 'the commons' - and demand that justice, natural justice, be our watchword?
Justice for plants and animals, for all that lives, for all that exists, including the so-called inanimate world.
Rights for us - for the environment.
'Trees "should" indeed have standing' - and all else too. (Professor Christopher Stone)
Isn't this what Evo Morales in Bolivia, what Idle No More, what OCCUPY are really all about?
~ Justice - morality - the right thing to do ~
Mike Desautels, aka Manysummits
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
By Michael Desautels on Tue, September 17, 2013 at 3:02 pm
Excellent article.
Clearly partnering with those who profit from polluting isn't working.
That just isn't going to change.
By edward tuck on Thu, September 12, 2013 at 11:37 am
Interesting read, but some wild claims are made about the effectiveness and direction of green groups. I think Naomi slightly misses in just how weak and political unfeasible some of the huge green initiatives that she'd like to see are right now, but its not green groups she should blame. Why is public willingness to support climate based initiatives a losing discussion? And how does not being a part of the elite make a green groups less effective, just because they aren't rich, snooty assholes who would rather focus on change over profit? No, green groups are not losing because of that. Maybe its because of the media and huge right-wing kings like the Koch brothers spreading misinformation around every corner. Wealth distribution is nearly where it was before the great depression, meaning those in the middle are more confused and misguided than ever about what the future holds and that makes a huge difference in what this country can do, especially if those people in the middle are idle, and and taking any action whatsoever.
Lets face it, green groups do what they can given the feasibility of something at any given time. We (enviros) all care about what happens with regard to climate, but everyone goes about it in different way, I dont think she has any right to lambast the strategies of one group and conflate them with what the rest of the movement is doing.
We're all fragments of a whole, and we're working to put those piece together in some amazingly huge way and of course it's not easy.
The hebrew word shalom means peace, which comes from the word shalem, meaning whole. To make peace is to make whole. Not everyone approaches the pieces the same, we can't always do it right the first time, but we're damn sure working hard as fuck, don't forget that. I've lost some respect for Klein in this article, even though I've liked what I've read in the past.
I'm a part of a large national green group, clean water action. Their work commonly goes under the radar but its attacking some of the largest carbon polluters, the coal industry. They're fighting for protections against water pollution which would impose huge costs against the coal industry for being a deadly threat to the US at large, and thus making them pay for their pollution directly. Common sense, and puts the industry on their heels for their misdeeds. Its one of many strategies to attack and defeat carbon-intensive polluters. One of many.
Below is a recommended read, counter to Klein's. Please read if this article made you feel a little bit angry inside.
By Phil Dimotsis on Thu, September 12, 2013 at 9:18 am
Thank you Naomi for bringing attention to this. Environmental Defense Fund was founded in my living room - my father was one of the 4 men who founded it. They were all avid ornithologists, who were concerned with the decline of osprey and peregrine falcons, which was linked to DDT caused eggshell thinning. While I grew up holding EDF in great respect, that all dissipated and dissolved into a sense of dismay and disgust as EDF became the leading proponent of carbon trade and market approaches and, in general, corporate friendly approaches to "environmentalism". With some colleagues from Rising Tide, we staged a protest at the DC offices years ago. Here is link to statement i presented at that time.
EDF is not much different from most of the other large environmental orgs, who depend upon funding from the "system" to keep their desk chairs padded… the same "system" that is responsible for the environmental demise they supposedly are fighting. Which causes them to be highly averse to recognizing and grappling with the reality of their failure. It does seem that there is a resurgence of grassroots power and passion, and that is reason to have some hope.
By Rachel Smolker on Thu, September 12, 2013 at 6:28 am
Dear Ms. Klein
Thank you for writing this. I'm the director of a small program called www.transition-lab.com and We are on the same page. We've been working to develop alternative economic models and last week we won a contest at MIT for the best "Local Solution" that would be easily replicable and affective in terms of reducing CO2 emissions. We'd love touch base with you sometime. Keep up the good work. Cheers-
By Russell Evans on Wed, September 11, 2013 at 7:51 pm
Chutzpah personified would be Naomi Klein—board member of 350 dot org—talking about Big green opportunism. I guess that's why elites like Rockefeller fund it. As for scams, it's hard to imagine a more losing strategy than the 350 dot org fossil fuel divestment campaign. I mean, shifting university shares in oil companies to Wall Street is hardly going to improve corporate behavior.
By Jay Taber on Fri, September 06, 2013 at 2:10 pm
hi jason…
how are we to assess the accuracy of her assertions about "big green groups" if she doesn't name them. and what exactly is the "neoliberal economic orthodoxy ?" i wish you had asked.
roger mack
By r mack on Thu, September 05, 2013 at 10:42 am


text:
November 19, 2010
Survey sees crew costs as set to rise
Vessel operating costs are expected to rise by 3.2 percent this year and by 3.5 percent in 2011, Crew costs are the category most likely to produce the highest levels of increase.
Those are some of the results of a new survey by international accountant and shipping consultant Moore Stephens.
The survey is based on responses from shipowners and managers, mostly in Europe and Asia. It revealed an overall expectation that crew costs would rise by 2.7 percent in 2010 and by 3.0 percent in 2011.
"It's all about crew," noted one respondent. "With fewer experienced crew available for worldwide fleet expansion, labor costs will rise."
Another commented: "In order to keep the present pool of seafarers and improve performance, we will need to look at increases in wages and other benefits for seafarers so that they are attracted to work on board, rather than take up lucrative jobs ashore."
Responses to the survey indicated that the cost of lubricants is expected to increase by 2.4 percent and 2.7 percent in 2010 and 2011 respectively, with repair and maintenance expenditure likely to rise by 2.6 percent in both years. The category thought most likely to produce the lowest level of increases in both 2010 and 2011 was management fees, at 1.6 percent and 1.8 percent respectively.
Respondents were also concerned about rising insurance costs.
"The dark horse is insurance costs," remarked one respondent, "due to the fact that ordinary planned maintenance in many cases will be either reduced or ignored as vessel income cannot finance the costs, and banks will not provide or extend credit lines. More incidents will be reported to insurers, with a consequential increase in premiums."
There were also concerns that operating costs would increase due to the weakness of the dollar. "Operating costs over the next two-to-three years may not show any substantial increase as the world economy continues to stagnate," said one respondent, "but costs will increase due to the devaluation of the dollar, which inflates overall costs".
Asked to name the three factors most likely to influence the level of vessel operating costs over the next twelve months, 43 percent of respondents identified crew supply as the most significant, followed closely by finance costs at 39 percent and then by demand trends, at 22 percent. Crew supply and finance costs were also the top two factors in Moore Stephens' 2009 survey, although then finance costs led the way at 26 percent, with crew supply at 22 percent. The third most significant factor in 2009 was competition, at 16 percent.
Moore Stephens shipping partner Richard Greiner says, "Ship operating costs have been running at increasingly high levels in recent years but our OpCost benchmarking tool shows that, in 2009, total annual operating costs fell - for the first time in eight years - across all the main ship types by an average of 2.0 percent. It is no surprise now to find that the industry is expecting costs to increase this year and next, nor to learn that crew costs are likely to lead the way in this regard. But it does seem that some of the volatility of recent years has gone out of ship operating costs, and that is good news for shipping. Any repeat of the huge increases recorded in recent years would be unsustainable in the current economic climate."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
JACKSON, Miss. — A federal judge continued today to block a state law that threatened to shut down Mississippi's only abortion clinic and make it nearly impossible for a woman to get the procedure in the state.
U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III temporarily blocked the law July 1 and extended that order today, though he did not say when he would rule on the clinic's request to put the law on hold for a longer period. If he grants that request, the case eventually would go to trial.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states can't place undue burdens or substantial obstacles to women seeking abortion. The state law would require anyone performing clinic abortions to be an OB-GYN with privileges to admit patients to a local hospital. The doctors at the clinic in Jackson do not have those privileges, which the clinic has said aren't necessary.
Supporters of the law said it's designed to protect patients, and Republican Gov. Phil Bryant has said he hopes it will help make Mississippi "abortion-free."
The clinic, Jackson Women's Health Organization, said it has been unable to obtain admitting privileges for its two out-of-state OB-GYNs because local hospitals have not responded to their requests.
"They're out to close us down," the clinic's owner, Diane Derzis, said of state officials.
Admitting privileges can be difficult to get because hospitals might not grant them to out-of-state physicians, or hospitals with religious affiliations might not give them to abortion doctors.
When clinic employees called a Catholic hospital to ask about applying for privileges, "we were told not to bother," Derzis said.
The clinic said it would face "irreparable harm" if the law were to be enforced because hospitals haven't said when — or if — they'll consider the privileges.
"If they're denied or if the hospitals are dragging their feet, that's going to be more clear evidence that there's a substantial obstacle" to an abortion, clinic attorney Robert McDuff said.
The government said the privileges help protect patients by ensuring they have continuity of care if a woman needs to go to the hospital. They also note that while the clinic might have to wait to get hospital privileges, "inconvenience is not `irreparable harm."'
The state attorney general's office declined to comment after the hearing.
Steven Aden, an attorney for an anti-abortion group Alliance Defending Freedom, said he was retained by Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood to act as a consultant in the case.
"All the state is doing here is to apply a common-sense rule that's applicable to all ambulatory surgical centers," Aden said.
The law was passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature. When the governor signed it in April, he said, "If it closes that clinic, then so be it." Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves said: "We have an opportunity today with the signing of this bill to end abortion in Mississippi and also to protect women."
Special Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Bryant argued that any anti-abortion statements by elected officials were "weak evidence" that the purpose of the law was to prevent abortions.
Terri Herring of the Pro Life America Network lobbied for the law and attended the court hearing. After the judge's decision, Herring said the hospitals should deny admitting privileges for the abortion clinic's doctors.
"There's no vetting process for fly-by-night physicians who come in and perform abortions at the clinic," Herring said.
The clinic uses out-of-state physicians because in-state physicians generally don't want to face the social pressure of having protesters at their offices, homes or churches, clinic employees say.
Opponents of the law say any patient experiencing complications could receive immediate care from emergency room physicians.
The clinic for the past several years has also had a transfer agreement with a local OB-GYN who has hospital admitting privileges. He doesn't perform abortions at the clinic but provides backup help by agreeing to meet clinic patients at a hospital if there's an emergency.
Derzis said since she acquired Jackson Women's Health Organization in 2010, no woman has had to be taken from the clinic by ambulance.
The U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 established a nationwide right to abortion. In 1992, the court's decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey upheld the Roe decision and allowed states to regulate abortions before fetuses are viable. But the 1992 decision also said states may not place undue burdens or substantial obstacles to women seeking abortion.
If the clinic closed, the closest clinics to Jackson are about 200 miles away, in Louisiana, Tennessee and Alabama.
Mississippi physicians who perform fewer than 10 abortions a month can avoid having their offices regulated as an abortion clinic, and thus avoid restrictions in the new law. The clinic's owner has said the clinic is unlikely to stay open and perform that few abortions per month. The Health Department said it doesn't have a record of how many physicians perform fewer than 10 abortions a month.
Clinic operators say almost all the abortions in the state are done in their building. They say in court papers that the clinic did about 3,000 abortions in 18 months.
Associated Press writer Jeff Amy contributed to this report.
Follow Emily Wagster Pettus on Twitter: http://twitter.com/EWagsterPettus


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Originally published on September 7, 2012 12:10 pm
Throughout the week at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., NPR digital journalists asked delegates, politicians and other attendees to react to the statement: "Why I'm a Republican." Here are some of those responses. (And here's what we heard from Democrats in Charlotte.)
Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.


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Class Assignment: Defining Religion
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Farewell to our Colleagues
Homosexual Candidates, the Seminary and the Priesthood
A Perspective on Clergy Sexual Abuse
What Spirituality and Religion Offer the Contemporary Practicing Psychologist
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[Used in social psychological research on self-complexity. Described in Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 28 (1996), pp. 483-485. This program is saved as a "zip" file. In order to download, click on the link, save it to your disk, and use a file utility program to unzip/unarchive the file.]
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Keys - Lock Shop
- The lock shop is located at the Facilities services building.
- Key requests will be filled only after a completed key request form has been submitted. (even if you already have a card on file)
- Typically a key request is filled with 2 business days of submitting the card. The process may take longer at the beginning of a semester. This could be up to 4 business days depending on the amount of requests received.
- Replacement keys will only be issued after all associated fees have been paid and a receipt brought to the F.S. office. The same time to fill requests applies as stated above.


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Meat Loaf Admits to Balance Problems, Is Jealous of Springsteen and Jagger
Meat Loaf is jealous of musicians of his age that are still able to do amazing moves on stage.
The 65-year-old singer is currently on his Last at Bat Tour, which is being billed as a farewell series of shows. Meat Loaf has claimed previous tours would be his last, but this time around he is adamant he won't be returning to the stage.
As much as he loves performing for fans, health problems mean he can't do it anymore. He has collapsed on stage in the past and cancelled several Last at Bat Tour dates due to health problems.
"This really is my final tour. I won't be talked out of it. I've had all these concussions, and they're now starting to play havoc with my equilibrium and balance. I was upstairs getting dressed earlier and if you'd had a camera on me you'd be asking, 'How much has that guy had to drink?' That's a problem on stage," he explained to Q magazine.
"I stumble and people think I've been drinking. It upsets me and I'm jealous, because I see Bruce [Springsteen] sliding across the stage on his knees, and [Sir Mick] Jagger's still doing it, but I've got 100lbs. on him and that extra weight has a bearing on your bones and joints."
Meat Loaf is rumoured to have undergone some unusual medical treatments during his life. It was claimed he injected his own urine after struggling with voice problems, something he is now clearing up.
The star insists the practice isn't as unusual as many think.
"An allergy specialist mixed my urine with some other stuff first. So there was some urine in the solution to help fight allergies. You don't just pee in a bottle and stick a needle in and inject it," he laughed.
"A few years ago I was at the Cigar Club in Beverly Hills and there were some really famous people there one night - no, I won't give you their names, but they were people you would have heard of - and they were all peeing in glasses and bringing them back and having others drink it. It was an allergy thing. I wasn't involved, but I was there."


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|This company has recently filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
General Growth Properties is the 2nd largest Real Estate Investment Trust ("REIT") in the United States by revenue. GGP's primary business is managing shopping malls, and it owns properties in 44 states. As of 12/31/08, GGP has ownership interest in, or management responsibility for, over 200 regional shopping malls in 44 states, as well as ownership in master planned communities and commercial office buildings. GGP's properties are usually major shopping centers with at least one large "anchor" department store to draw customers and attract additional tenants.[1] Mall tenants rent store space and pay rent to GGP; these rental fees, along with management fees received from third party owners who manage the malls themselves, are the source of GGP's revenues.
General Growth Properties is larger than most of its competitors, excluding Simon Property Group. It is one of the few retail REITs to own international assets, with projects underway in Brazil, Costa Rica, and Turkey as of December 31, 2007.[2] Within the US it also has a more diversified geographic scope than many of its competitors, operating in 44 of the 50 states.[3] As of February 20, 2009, the company had approximately 3,500 employees. [4]
This diversity did not save the firm from the volatile U.S. Housing Market in 2007, which led to approximately $130M in asset writedowns for the company. As discussed below, GGP owns approximately 18,000 acres of land in preplanned residential communities that it holds for sale to residents and developers. Because of the recent drop in home prices, GGP was forced to write down the value of that land. A large debt balance, one of the largest in the industry and a source of risk for the company, is forcing GGP to focus on developing its existing properties rather than aggressively expanding earnings through acquisitions.[5] The company is exposed to shifts in national economic conditions, and a macroeconomic downturn hurts GGP's Mall business by lowering its tenants' revenues, decreasing demand for its properties and perhaps causing some tenants to become insolvent.
During 2008, the global economy entered into a significant downturn. For the domestic retail market, the recession resulted in sales declines, reduced margins and cash flows and, bankruptcies for some tenants. Consequently, revenue and occupancy declines have occurred on GGP's properties, as a function of terminations, reduced demand for rental space, and reductions in rents that can be charged and collected. Additionally, the commercial lending market has came to a standstill. Accordingly, GGP has been unable to refinance or repay a number of their existing loans which had scheduled 2008 maturities, triggering certain cross-default provisions on certain other financing arrangements. To temporarily forestall foreclosure or bankruptcy proceedings, they have entered into a number of short-term extension and forbearance agreements with various lender groups. Such agreements have imposed lender operational oversight on their operations and, with respect to certain properties, have resulted in lender control of operational cash receipts. Reduced cash flows, increased borrowing costs and the suspension of their common stock dividend have raised liquidity concerns in the equity markets such that their stock price as of December 31, 2008 has declined by almost 97% since December 31, 2007.
On April 16, 2009, General Growth Properties, Inc., filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 of Title 11 of the United States Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. General Growth will continue to manage their properties and operate their businesses as "debtors-in-possession" under the jurisdiction of the Bankruptcy Court and in accordance with the applicable provisions of the Bankruptcy Code and the orders of the Bankruptcy Court. [6] Currently, General Growth Properties trades in the OTC with the ticker symbol: GGWPQ.
On April 15, 2009, General Growth obtained a commitment letter from Williams Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P., as agent, to provide GGP with bankruptcy financing, referred to as a DIP Credit Agreement. In connection with the Commitment Letter, the Company paid Pershing a fee of $15 million.[7]
The DIP Credit Agreement provides for a term loan in the aggregate amount of $375 million, which will be used to refinance certain pre-petition secured indebtedness and will be available to fund GGP's working capital requirements. The DIP Credit Agreement provides that principal outstanding on the DIP Term Loan will bear interest at an annual rate equal to LIBOR plus 12%. This is subject to a minimum LIBOR floor of 3%.[8]
The DIP Credit Agreement further provides that upon the effective date of a plan of reorganization for GGP, the company will issue warrants to Pershing and its designees to acquire for a nominal exercise price:
In connection with a plan of reorganization, if GGP offers to sell any newly issued equity securities, they will be obligated to offer to sell to Pershing and its designees up to an aggregate of 4.9% of such equity securities (on a fully-diluted basis) on the same terms. [9]
GGP's primary source of revenue is the 200 malls that the company owns and manages.[10] GGP's operating structure has been to purchase under-performing mall assets, financing the acquisitions with floating rate debt.[11] GGP purchases an under-performing property using primarily floating rate debt. It then renovates the property, and then refinances, paying off the floating rate debt with less volatile fixed rate debt. This strategy, while lucrative, has led GGP to accumulate a large debt balance and now it is attempting to shift its focus away from acquisitions and to development.
The company's Master Planned Community Segment is involved in residential real estate, and has developed communities in three states, including Summerlin in Nevada, The Woodlands and Bridgeland in Texas, and Columbia in Maryland. The company builds residential developments, then sells the land to developers for residential and commercial uses. As of December 31st 2007 it had held approximately 18,000 acres available for sale in 5 residential communities in Maryland, Nevada and Texas.[12]
In July of 2007 GGP acquired the remaining ownership stake in 23 properties co-owned by GGP and the New York State Retirement Fund.[13] Prior to this transaction GGP had owned a 50% stake in these properties, with the NYSRF an institutional partner. The transaction left GGP with 100% ownership in 20 of the 23 regional malls in the portfolio, and was completed at a cost of $2.24B ($1.2B in cash and $1.04B in the assumption of debt).[14] This acquisition is one of the primary reasons revenues increased in 2007.
From 2006 to 2007 revenues and income changed primarily due to:
Though revenues have been steadily increasing, operating income as a percentage of revenues has been falling. This suggests that as the company grows it is not realizing economies of scale and is actually suffering from higher incremental costs.
The graph of Net Income on FFO is also telling. Funds From Operations (FFO) is a measure commonly used in the real estate industry, and it is a company's net income, excluding any gain on real estate sold during the period and excluding any depreciation/amortization. It measures a company's funds produced that are available for reinvestment or distribution to shareholders. FFO continued to rise as the company expanded, but until 2007 the company's net income continued to fall due to greater depreciation costs from that expansion. This increase in depreciation caused net income as a percentage of FFO to fall below 5% in 2006. Though net income shot up in 2007 this was the result of a one time tax benefit due to internal restructuring, not any change in the fundamental operating characteristics of the company.[21]
GGP competes with numerous other firms to both acquire properties and lease tenants. Competing REITs include:
The table below provides competitive data comparing GGP with some of its close competitors.
|Revenues (12/31/2007, Millions)
|Market Cap(Billions, 04/17/08)
|Operating Properties
|Number of States With Operating Properties
|General Growth Properties (GGP)
|3261.80 [50]
|9.92 [51]
|200 [52]
|45 [53]
|Simon Property Group (SPG)
|3650.80 [54]
|22.75 [55]
|320 [56]
|41 [57]
|Macerich Company (MAC)
|896.37 [58]
|5.35 [59]
|94 [60]
|19 [61]
|Taubman Centers (TCO)
|626.82 [62]
|2.96 [63]
|23 [64]
|10 [65]
|CBL & Associates Properties (CBL)
|1040.63 [66]
|1.62 [67]
|159 [68]
|27 [69]
The nature of competition varies from property to property in each segment. The principal factors that retailers consider in making their leasing decision include:
Market share is listed by FFO. Globally there were 38 REITs focusing on retail properties.[71] Most of those were small companies, only 9 Retail REITs are listed in the Russell 1000. Among all retail REITs GGP's market share is about 11%.
According the SEC Filing, hedge fund manager William Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management LP disclosed that it owns a 7.5% stake or 20,080,690 common shares in General Growth Properties. Pershing Square also has an additional economic exposure to approximately 48,500,000 common shares under certain cash-settled total return swaps ("swaps"), bringing their total aggregate economic exposure to 68,580,690 common shares, which amounts to approximately 25.6% of the outstanding shares.


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Top 10 Foods For Detoxing
With a new year and changes in season, it's typical to come across countless articles and advertisements about detoxing and cleansing, from companies selling their powdery shakes and strangely-sweetened bars, to professionals recommending crazy fasts and liquid cleanses. While there are plenty of decent detoxing programs out there, the good news is that nature provides lots of help in this department on her own. Below are 10 detoxing superstars you can find in the produce section. Incorporate these often to jumpstart your body's automatic and natural cleansing work.
Green Veggies
Sea Veggies
Broccoli Sprouts
Green Tea
Artichokes increase bile production and both purify and protect the liver. They also have a mild diuretic effect on the kidneys, which aides in toxin removal once the liver breaks them down. Some studies have shown that artichokes may actually regenerate liver tissues (It is seriously all about the liver). They are also super duper high in fiber, which, as we know, helps us with elimination.


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Pulsations (05.25.12)
Here are the latest Pulsations, links to fresh stories and visuals about Japan, shout-outs to fellow bloggers, and highly clickable stuff that we think you might enjoy.
In no particular order, they are . . .
- What Do Japanese Children Want to Be When they Grow Up? (Survey) (from Skeptikai): You know, kids, working as an animated character is not all it's cracked up to be — long hours, bad pay, plus the jump from being a human to the 2D world really takes its toll on your body. Better have something to fall back on, like professor or astronaut.
- Whale-safe beer (from LLP): The anti-globalists were right all along: Commercial society has now reached a point where all products look alike. That is the only explanation we can think of for the fact that beer companies are competing on which beer contains the least amount of whale.
- Nintendo characters as Ukiyo-e prints (from Geekologie): Someday, maybe archaeologists will find these prints and use them as proof that aliens visited Japan in the 17th century. This is how deranged historical theories are created, people!
- The 2012 annular eclipse seen from Tokyo (from Hikosaemon): Yeah, this blog round-up wouldn't be complete without the event that for once had the entire east coast of Japan on their feet at 7 in the morning. Hikosaemon gets the Japan Pulse Photo of the Week Award (disclaimer: not an actual thing) for the shot of a helicopter passing in front of his lens just at the moment of total eclipse.
Tags: children, eclipse, kids, Nintendo, Pulsations, survey, ukiyoe, whaling


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So far it has been an interesting year in the city of Fall River. By that I am referring to all the news flashes and announcements coming from the sixth floor at city hall.
So far it has been an interesting year in the city of Fall River. By that I am referring to all the news flashes and announcements coming from the sixth floor at city hall.
First it was the casino. The mayor originally was pushing for the New Harbour Mall as the site. When that didn't work out, he started making announcements about an unspecified site along the waterfront. In fact, it was reported in The Herald News that Mayor Will Flanagan was saying it would be one of the world's biggest casinos. The group that the mayor was dealing with from Foxwoods has since pulled out of negotiations.
Next, it was the battle with the City Council over the Fiscal 2015 budget. The mayor couldn't wait for the council to officially meet and review it back in early June.
The mayor made the bold announcement that if the City Council did not approve his $257 million budget, the city would shut down. This unprofessional tactic caused a great deal of anxiety at city hall and though out the city. Thanks to Ray Mitchell and Mike Miozza a compromise was reached with the administration on a $238.9 million budget.
Now, the mayor, in another attempt to play on the emotions of the people in this city, announced that a letter had been sent to former Gov. Mitt Romney about Fall River hosting a possible venue for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Mayor Flanagan later tried to correct the original announcement by saying that he was hoping Fall River would be a satellite for Boston if the committee selected this region for the event.
All of the drama the mayor has created over the first half of 2014 would be, in my opinion, great material for "Saturday Night Live." But I have lived my whole life in this city, and for that reason, what Flanagan is doing might be great news for the media to work with; but, for me, it's just not funny anymore.
William Tessier
Fall River


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when you cut your dingles off and put them in your friends choclate ice cream
(it has to be choclate so they can blend in)
(it has to be choclate so they can blend in)
jon didnt wipe for 2 weeks.he cut off his ass hair wit dingles in them. he decided to save them for a friends tastey snack later on in the day. he got some ice cream for his friend.jon went upstairs to his collection while joe was eating the ice cream. he put them on his ice cream and joe ate it. joe just got jimmy dangled.
by jordan leveille/chris hall/eddy apice June 01, 2007


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Rowdy's Dream Blog #209: I point out a walking stick bug.
I join my two women friends as they attempt to pole their small raft up the river. I take over both poles just as we enter a strong current. The raft is pitched back down river and the girls go overboard. I manage to eddy up the raft around a bend and I cling to some brush. The girls climb back on. We disembark. On the beach, I point out a walking stick bug that is carrying a small piece of paper. A beetle and a fly ride on its back. The girls are uninterested.


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This summer, I wrote about Texas filmmaker Yen Tan's latest feature film, which like his last, is Texas-set and gay-themed. Pit Stop is about a romance between rural gays (one Latino, one Anglo) who begin a relationship, and how it affects and is affected by their small-town lives. Tan was tagged for a fundraising campaign similar to Kickstarter.com called UnitedStatesArtists.org, which helps filmmakers and other artists get the money they need to make their dream a reality. In Tan's case, the goal was $22,000. So far, he's accured $20,600 — that's 94 percent.
It is not, however, enough — and this is a question of winner-takes-all. If Tan doesn't hit the $22K figure within the next 13 days, he gets none of it. That's a pretty important $1,400.
Pledges as low as one dollar count, and there are perks depending on what you pledge, from an on-screen credit to a walk-on role. If you go here, you can pledge directly. You have some time, but why taunt fate? And on-screen credit is pretty cool, actually.


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Sponsored by the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
QuizbowlPostmodernist wrote:Let us start out by saying that a full round robin is the ideal tournament format, but is usually unpractical. This leads to other tournament formats, usually involving divisional round-robin plus some sort of playoff system.
Proponents of total points (or point differential or bonus conversion) feel that head-to-head overvalues a single game, when superiority over several games is more important.
In tournaments where teams played a multiple round-robin, you can take instances where teams were tied for win-loss after the first round-robin (or multiple round robins) and take the game in the next round-robin as the theoretical tie-breaker game that could have been played. Other tournaments may have teams that tied for win-loss in a preliminary round-robin facing each other in a playoff bracket.
QuizbowlPostmodernist wrote:I am also still concerned about paper tiebreakers involving points requiring the resolution of every protest over even five points. If forced to use such a paper tiebreaker, does anyone disagree with the notion that every protest that could theoretically impact the tiebreaker being used should be resolved (or at least noted and resolved if it matters)?
Phil Castagna wrote:Jerry's point about being ahead of Berkeley after one half is misplaced. There is no "perfect" number of tossups/bonuses to differentiate top teams from each other. That is an isolated vagary of questions that happened to skew in Jerry's favor. By any measure of paper tiebreaker, I am sure that they would be ahead of you as a one-person team, and if they are clearly superior, why play to break the tie at all? If you were still ahead after 20 tossups, should that then be the marker?
Phil Castagna wrote:My problem with total points is when the concept of a clock is in play, this can get skewed.
Matt Weiner wrote:
This is somewhat vague as to why head to head is unfair, so I'd like to elaborate. Every game can, should, and does matter, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with determining anything you like based on a format that comes down to a single game (for example, breaking an exact tie in the standings for 1st and 2nd with a single-game final, which is the format used by both ACF and NAQT nationals and which I doubt anyone objects to). If someone finishes 9-3 and someone else finishes 8-4, and there's only one playoff spot left for the two of them, then the team that's 8-4 has been knocked out by one game's result, and again, I doubt anyone objects to that.
The problem with head to head is not simply that one particular game determines the team's fate, is that you are counting that particular game twice. The team that would come out of a head-to-head tiebreaker as the winner already received credit for that win in order to get into the tie in the first place; there's no sound reason to single out that game and give them an additional win without also double-counting all their other losses, and thus creating the tie all over again.
Really, it just doesn't make any sense on a rational level. If formats were designed from the ground up and no one was trying to emulate the way the NFL does things, I doubt we would have even considered using head to head.
compucomp wrote:I disagree. By using statistical tiebreakers the tournaments shifts the focus away from the main objective of every contest in everything, which is to win. The relevant mantra from sports is that the "only stat that really matters is the number of points you scored versus the number of points your opponent scored". Using H2H as the paper tiebreaker guarantees that this principle is preserved. Using other statistical tiebreakers means that the objective isn't to win, it's to prove that you're a good team by putting up good numbers. These goals are not identical. A 20-15 win is a win, as is a 600-15 one. Of course the 600-15 win looks better, but the 20-15 is still a win, and this fact is usually forgotten when statistical tiebreakers are used, because the 20-15 win will make the team look much worse. Besides, the best team doesn't always win, and using statistical tiebreakers is an attempt to help the best team win, which I think is wrong. I think the team that wins should win, and H2H preserves that.
grapesmoker wrote:compucomp wrote:
I think you're missing the double-counting argument. The point is that if two teams have an equal record but a different H2H (i.e. one team has a loss to the other), then that team had to win the game to tie the record anyway. If you then award them the tiebreaker on the basis of that one game, you've effectively given them twice the credit for winning that game, and that's not fair.
I don't think statistical tiebreakers are an attempt to "help" the best team win. I think a statistical measure is going to tell you who that best team is. Remember, it's a tiebreaker, so at least as far as win-loss is concerned they are equal. That doesn't mean that one team isn't better than the other, though, and a statistical tiebreaker shows you that difference.
yoda4554 wrote:I don't entirely agree with compucomp, but a tournament using a PPG tiebreaker should keep in mind that it will cause a team to try to play aggressively even while winning handily or playing a weak opponent purely for the purpose of racking up points, and this purpose can be antithetical to the purpose of simply trying to win the game.
yoda4554 wrote:I don't entirely agree with compucomp, but a tournament using a PPG tiebreaker should keep in mind that it will cause a team to try to play aggressively even while winning handily or playing a weak opponent purely for the purpose of racking up points, and this purpose can be antithetical to the purpose of simply trying to win the game.
Matt Weiner wrote:Again, we can avoid this dilemma by caring about the quality of the tournaments we produce and having sufficient packets available to break ties.
yoda4554 wrote:Is this really a difficult concept? Do none of you play differently based on the margin of the score in the game? I certainly do. Examples in which playing to get the most points is antithetical to trying to win--
A. You have a lead of 85 points with 2 questions left in an mACF format (or, for that matter, any lead of slightly over 40n with n questions left). If you were playing purely to win, you would simply not buzz. If you were playing to accumulate points, you would continue to buzz aggressively and potentially neg and open the game up for your opponent.
B. You have any sizable but not insurmountable lead. If you were playing purely to win, you would buzz only when you were sure of the answer, so as to avoid a streak of negs that would hand questions over to the other team and give them an easy path back into contention. If you were playing to accumulate points, you would continue buzzing aggressively to so as to increase that lead.
C. The inverse of B; you are trailing by a sizable but not insurmountable amount. If you were playing purely to win, you would buzz very aggressively (particularly when against a team that frequently knows the answers to tossups early), as that's about your only chance to get back into the game. If you were playing purely for points, you would not buzz more aggressively, so as to avoid a string of negs and potentially pick up a few tossups
D. You're leading by between 10 and 45-50 points in a timed format with 5 seconds left when the last tossup begins. If you were playing purely to win, you'd neg immediately to kill the clock. If you were playing to accumulate points, you'd overlook the small chance the other team would pick up the tossup in such a short time and sit on your buzzer.
E. You're playing in a timed format and you have a small lead with less than a minute left when you answer a tossup. If you're playing to win, you answer the bonus as slowly as possible, so as to lower the amount of time left when the next tossup starts, hoping that it will go dead when time runs out (which would still lower your PPTH). If you're playing for points, you answer the bonus quickly so as to get more time to answer the next tossup yourself.
Bruce wrote:Except that negging hurts your statistics. If you are playing to maximize your score, you will not simply buzz in aggressively, you will attempt to avoid negging as well. So that carefullness will still be there.
pblessman wrote:Sorry about being a broken record...
I think ALL statistical tiebreakers are anticlimactic, especially when it comes down to the slimmest of margins. I don't mind my team being eliminated because we lost a match by 5 points, but saying that we won't advance because our bonus conversion was 22.4 points to the other team's 22.6? That just seems silly... I think EVERY tournament should be able to have even just a few questions (and minutes) available to play off the spots. If you plan ahead, this shouldn't be aproblem.
grapesmoker wrote:It's important to remember that tiebreakers by definition happen to teams that are on the margin.
jonpin wrote:Except if you have 3 teams who are X-1 at the end of the day and need to seed them in some way for the final.
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text: Livigno is a real winter paradise: that is why Livigno is an attractive resort for all those, in Europe, who like sports. here you\'ll find the best Italian snow park - the coolest place for those below age 30, who are looking for pure entertainment. The \"Little Tibet\", with its wide and open slopes, is the ideal place for telemark ski. Not to forget: the cross country ski, on sev beral kilometres of sunny tracks - ideal for botheginner and advanced skiers.


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3D Figures and Nets
Lesson 9 of 19
Objective: SWBAT: • Define net. • Identify and create nets that will build a particular 3D figure.
Big Idea: Students explore cube nets in an effort to understand what properties are common to all nets that form a cube. Students work hands-on with nets and are then pushed to use their experience to visually determine whether other nets will form a given figures.
Do Now
See my Do Now in my Strategy folder that explains my beginning of class routines.
Often, I create do nows that have problems that connect to the task that students will be working on that day. For this lesson I want students to review their work with 3D figures from the previous two lessons. This knowledge will help them to identify patterns and properties of successful nets. Common mistakes are that students confuse the vocabulary terms for each other. If students are still struggling, encourage them to use their Naming 3D Figures Reference Sheet. Some students will still struggle to count the edges, faces, and vertices from a drawing. Feel free to give these students the 3D figures used in the previous lesson so they can check their work.
When checking answers, I am sure that students are using accurate vocabulary. I do not accept "prism" or "pyramid" as adequate answers. I push students to give the most specific names for the 3D figures. Mathematical Practice 6: Attend to precision.
Resources (4)
Exploring Cube Designs
After the Do Now, I have a student read the objectives for the day. I have a volunteer read about Syria and the dice. I ask students to make predictions of which designs will form dice just by looking. See the video Exploring Cube Designs in the resource section for more details.
Resources (2)
Video: http://learnzillion.com/lessons/1219-represent-threedimensional-figures-with-nets
I play the video and pause it frequently for students to take notes and ask any questions they have. I want students to make the connection between the number and type of faces a 3D figure has and its net.
For the guided practice, students can draw nets on the Designing Nets Paper if they prefer. It is important that students recognize that the rectangular prism as two square faces, which means that all of the rectangles must have the same dimensions. If students are struggling to name the prism in #3, I encourage them to use their Naming 3D Figures Reference Sheet.
Polydons are another type of manipulative that students can use to investigate different nets that will create a cube (among other prisms). http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?id=L793
Here are some questions I may ask before moving on:
- What is a net? How does it relate to a 3D figure? How is it different?
- Can a 3D figure have more than one net? Why or why not? (Prove it)
- Why are nets helpful? What can we use them for?
If students understand the concepts in the video and practice and need extension, here are a couple tasks I may give students:
- Design 3 different nets for the rectangular prism in the guided practice: 2 that work and 1 that do not. Show the designs to your partner and ask them to figure out which nets match and which one does not.
- Design 3 different nets for the triangular prism in the guided practice: 2 that work and 1 that do not. Show the designs to your partner and ask them to figure out which nets match and which one does not.
I have students work on these problems independently. They check in with their partner if they are stuck, before asking me a question. If students finish a page, they raise their hand and I quickly scan their work. If they are on the right track, I tell them to check the key. See Posting A Key video in my Strategy Folder for more details.
Some students will struggle to determine appropriate nets just by looking at designs. Here are some actions I might take:
- Have extras copies of these problems (copied single-sided) so that students can cut them out and test them. For example, I had a student who said that none of the triangular prism nets on page 2 would work. I told her to cut them out and test them. She then revised her answer to say that design B worked. She previously thought that they triangle bases had to be directly across from each other in order to for the net to work.
- Have students build each design using other manipulatives, like polydrons.
- Ask students what kind of 3D figure they must make. How many faces does that 3D figure need to have? What shapes are those faces?
If students successfully complete these problems and have extra time I may ask students to:
- Complete the Extra Practice Problems
- Serve as a tutor for another student
- Design as many different nets that would successfully create a square pyramid (problem 3).
Before moving on I have students stop working and look at problem 1. I want students to explain which nets work and why they work, as well as which net does not work. I want students to recognize:
- These nets are creating a rectangular prism that has a rectangle as its base (unlike the guided practice problem that had squares).
- Each rectangle (there are 2 distinct rectangles) has a matching face. To demonstrate this I have students label corresponding faces with numbers (1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3)
- Some students will explain how they "fold" the net in their mind to see if it works. Other students may have cut them out and can prove that they work.
- Net E has all of the correct faces, but it has the matching faces next to each other which will not work. (I have this net cut out so that I can prove it does not work by folding.)
Resources (3)
Revisiting Cube Nets
We return to Syria and her cube nets. I have students conduct a think-write-pair-share in partners. I want students to write their predictions and their strategies for creating their predictions. See my Think Write Pair Share video in my Strategy Folder for more details.
Possible strategies students may share (I will share strategies that students don't bring up):
- Counting faces and making sure they match the number of faces for that 3D figure
- Choosing one face as the base or bottom and imagining you fold the other faces around it (some students may even make a gesture with their hands as they are doing this)
- Cutting the designs out and folding them (This is okay as a last resort, or to settle a dispute, but I encourage my students to use other strategies to replace this one)
- Using other manipulatives (like polydrons) to create the net and test it (Again this is okay as a last resort, or for a student who continues to struggle, but the goal is to transition to using visual strategies)
Resources (2)
Ticket To Go
Revisiting Syria's cube nets served as a closure for this lesson. I use the last five minutes for students to complete the ticket-to-go and self-reflection independently. See my Ticket to Go video in my Strategy Folder for more details.


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2010 US Tour
Post-tour Motorcycle Ride
| Posted by Shawn Mouser in New York
Some words from the Tour Doc
| Posted by Andrew S. Wachtel, M.D. in New York
Photos: Final Concert of the Tour!
| Posted by LA Phil Staff in New York
Memories of Concerts Past
| Posted by Robert Vijay Gupta in Newark
Playing New Jersey
| Posted by Lou Anne Neill in Newark
Photos: Runout to New Jersey
| Posted by LA Phil Staff in Newark
Practice makes perfect, but where can I practice?
| Posted by Christopher Still in New York
Back to My Old Stomping Ground
| Posted by Brent Samuel in New York
Philadelphia….the City of Brotherly Love, Dr. J, Rocky Balboa and our very own John Lofton.
| Posted by Jeffrey Neville in Philadelphia
Photos: Arriving by Train in New York
| Posted by LA Phil Staff in New York


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Newly acquired IVONA Software's text-to-speech tech is featured on the Kindle Fire.
Read the whole story
I'm very excited about this. I use text to speech on my old kindle 2 all the time. Just plug the headphone jack into the aux-in on my car...
There are two reasons why eReaders may lack audio:
1) Audiobook sales are smaller
2) Audio is differentiation proposition for tablets
(And one can save $$ on lower hw specs)
So audio may not return to eReaders
Though Amazon surely can get IVONA integrated with its Kindle Fire which will be some nice advantage over (other) Android competition.
However I strongly DISAGREE on "Beta" label. Text-to-Speech, and Speech-to-Text, are hard subjects. "Beta" lower user expectations, and allow for avoiding any blame for quirks in software. It will not go away so easily.
I still have a Kindle 2; I've used it to read me the New York Times while on road trips.
Its attempts to pronounce much of the International section is pretty entertaining.
The deletion of audio features from the Paperwhite was pretty controversial. In my case it doesn't bother me, the text to speech was not real pleasing on the older kindle I owned.
Barnes and Noble came at Amazon with cheaper readers without Audio hardware. I think Amazon probably knew that not many users were using TTS so it made sense to drop it to bring the cost of the reader down.
But the people who used it sure were vocal when the Paperwhite came out.. there are tons of negative reviews on Amazon's site denouncing the Paperwhite for not having Text to Speech. (It is not as if Amazon ever said it had it!)
In the end they are readers and all I care about personally is the best screen possible and solid software that stays out of the way.
Can't wait to hear what Scott Turow of the Author's Guild has to say about this.
I tried Text to Speech out on a Google Play book the other day and didn't like it at all. I never liked audio books in the first place, so maybe I'm biased.
I've used TTS on an older Kindle and I also have listened to quite a few audiobooks, and IMO audiobooks provide a much better experience. Audiobooks give you a professional narrator essentially voice-acting the book, not just blandly reading the words out loud which is what you get with TTS. There are a couple audiobooks that I've enjoyed listening to more than reading the actual book. Though, that better experience usually comes at a price.
Hmm I have always thought of the word dictation to imply speech to text. It seems like the usage of the word here is the other way around.
Oh, absolutely. Anyone who thinks text-to-speech is a substitute for an audio book (and that includes the Writers' Guild of America) has clearly never listened to an example; if people had to actually pay for it, there'd be no takers. But I found it useful for reading me newspaper articles while I was driving.


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Elimination 5 - mulitply both equations
Unit 5: SYSTEMS OF LINEAR EQUATIONS
Lesson 11 of 19
Lesson 11 of 19
Objective: SWBAT solve systems linear systems of equations by elimination – multiply both equations.
75 minutes
10 min
WU70 Elimination 5 reviews solving systems of equations by graphing.
Warm-up problems also sometimes extend lessons that students have encountered before to more unfamiliar contexts. For a video narrative about how I structure each lesson, and how the warm-up fits in, click here.
Resources (1)
Resources (1)
5 - 11 WU70 Elimination 5 - multiply both equations.docx
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Play of the Day
40 min
Resources (2)
5 - 11 POTD70 Elimination 5 - multiply both equations.docx
5 - 11 IP70 Elimination 5 - multiply both equations.pdf
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10 min
Resources (1)
5-11 Gold Problem.pdf
expand content
15 min
5 - 11 HW70 Elimination 5 includes problems related to this lesson, four from this unit and one review problem. I also give the kids the answers to the problems.
Resources (1)
Resources (1)
5 - 11 HW70 Elimination 5 - multiply both equations.docx
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Similar Lessons
Solving Linear Systems of Equations with Substitution (Day 3 of 3)
Big Idea: Students will create a system of equations from a real world scenario and interpret the solution. Students will use linear substitution to solve systems of equations.
Solving Problems in Two or More Unknowns
Big Idea: The reason systems of equations exist as an algebra topic is that they're a tool to be used when a problem has more than one unknown variable.
Classifying Solutions to Linear Equations Formative Assessment Lesson Day 1 of 3
Big Idea: Use this great, hands-on, formative assessment lesson to deepen students' understanding of solving systems of linear equations.


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The High Line's planting design is inspired by the self-seeded landscape that took root on the elevated rail tracks after the trains stopped running. The High Line includes more than 300 species of perennials, grasses, shrubs, and trees — chosen for their hardiness, adaptability, diversity, and seasonal variation in color and texture. Some of the species that originally grew on the High Line's rail bed are reflected in the park landscape today.
This week we share with you one of our Gardeners' current favorites.
Much like the Jelena witch hazel featured last week, Hamamelis x intermedia 'Pallida,' known by its common name Pallida witch hazel, produces vibrant blooms mid-winter when most other plants are dormant.
Pallida witch hazel has great yellow fall foliage followed by wintertime blooms of string-like yellow flowers with purple sepals. Make sure to stop to smell the flowers if you spot this bush on the High Line—its fragrant flowers are taste of spring in the middle of the winter.
On the High Line between Little West 12th Street and West 13th Street


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Vanessa Prado was a HOT Brazilian babe we had on Mike in Brazil this week. This girl was super cute with a wicked body. Right from the start of this episode, she meant business. Vanessa came into the house looking good in a pair of tiny shorts and decided she'd take a dip in the pool. All her clothes came off to reveal a tiny bikini underneath. Vanessa had an incredible ass that looked delicious in that thong. Once she was in the pool, she put on a little show for us. Vanessa pulled down her bottom to show off her ass then played with her pussy underwater.
That ass was big and round, and Vanessa got out of the water to play with her pussy where we could watch. That tight snatch looked amazing, as she rubbed it and got it all wet for Loupon. He pulled out his cock, and she got right to work sucking away on it. Vanessa swallowed that cock like only a true Latina freak could. Loupan pounded that hot pussy all over the couch, and Vanessa got on top to ride his cock even deeper. When he couldn't hold out any longer, he pulled out and busted a huge load all over her gorgeous face.


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Diesel DZ1206 Watch "Master Chief"
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BIRMINGHAM (SECDigitalNetwork.com) - The South Carolina Gamecocks are predicted to win the 2014 Southeastern Conference baseball championship by a slim one-vote margin, as voted by the league's 14 baseball coaches in the 23rd annual preseason SEC poll.
The Gamecocks, ranked No. 14 nationally in the preseason USA Today Coaches' Poll, seek to capture their fourth SEC Championship. LSU and Mississippi State, ranked second and fourth in the USA Today poll respectively, received four votes each in the overall vote.
LSU has 15 SEC Championships in its program's history, while Mississippi State has 10, the last of which came in 1989. Vanderbilt also received one vote to win the league title.
Since 1996, the SEC has named a regular season champion as well as a tournament champion. Prior to 1996, the tournament champion was considered the SEC Champion.
In addition to picking a preseason SEC champion, the league's head coaches voted a predicted order of finish in the SEC Eastern and Western Divisions. In the Western Division, LSU was the narrow favorite with 84 of a possible 91 points. Mississippi State came in second with 83 points, with Alabama and Texas A&M tied at third with 58. South Carolina received 86 points in the Eastern Division. Vanderbilt was second with 82, while Florida finished third with 69.
Points were compiled on a 7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis for each division. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own team. Each coach also voted for one team as an overall conference champion.
The 2014 SEC regular season begins Friday, February 14, with conference play set to begin Friday, March 14. The SEC Tournament will be played at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, Ala., May 20-25. The 2013 SEC Baseball Tournament drew over 134,000 fans, a new record-high for the event. Eight times in the last 11 years the tournament has surpassed the six-digit mark in total attendance.
Eastern Division
Team -- Pts.
1. South Carolina (9) -- 86
2. Vanderbilt (5) -- 82
3. Florida -- 69
4. Kentucky -- 47
5. Tennessee -- 39
6. Georgia -- 38
7. Missouri -- 24
Western Division
Team -- Pts.
2. Mississippi State (7) -- 83
3. Alabama -- 58
Texas A&M (1) -- 58
5. Arkansas -- 44
6. Ole Miss -- 35
7. Auburn -- 21
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